


No One Ever Suspects

by InnerSpectrum



Series: Mystrade is Our Division Prompts [40]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Adopted Children, Facebook: Mystrade is our Division Fic Prompts, Mystrade Prompt Challenge, Mystrade is our Division FB Fic Prompts, mystrade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 09:49:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19743214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InnerSpectrum/pseuds/InnerSpectrum
Summary: It the wee hours Greg, Sherlock and John are desperately looking for clues in a string of murders with an unusual pattern.





	No One Ever Suspects

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Mystrade is our Division FB Fic Prompts | Animal

It was half two in the morning. Greg, Sherlock and John were working a case and saying they were beyond exhausted was their condition over a week ago. For the past fourteen weeks in a row a young child had been murdered.

Nothing, absolutely nothing linked them that they could see. Not age, not appearances, not neighborhoods, not schooling or family finances. Not even the methods of killing were consistent. Which was why it took a while to realize they had a serial on their hands.

There were at best another two days before next child. At worst a call could come in any moment announcing the death of another child. The four deaths that happened since they finally realized the universe was rarely that lazy nor that cruel ate at the three mens' souls.

Greg was absolutely determined there would NOT be a next child.

The one and only thing that connected them was that they were all under ten years of age and a stamp of a kiss in a clear lip moisturizer was placed on each child’s left cheek.

“…The way John and I sometimes kiss Rosie when tucking her in at night.” Sherlock had mused tiredly as he walked away from one of the evidence walls.

“Ya…” John agreed sleepily as he ran a rough hand over his face, “it’s like how I’ve seen you and Mycroft do with Marcus. You kiss his forehead and both cheeks.”

“Yes, yes, yes… right before we…” Greg waved an idle hand, at first dismissive of the bedtimes routines of with their children then he stopped cold and looked at the wall. He looked to John and knew the doctor had caught on a moment later he turned back to the walls and cursed.

“I know that look…” Sherlock looked at his husband, then at Greg. He looked at the walls of evidence and became excited himself as it came to him.

Every night, either individually or together, when Greg and Mycroft tucked their surrogate son Marcus in bed it was the same routine. They read him a story, kissed his forehead or cheek, then they ensured that Vulpes – the stuffed silver fox with an umbrella, that John and Sherlock had gifted them with the day they brought Marcus Giovani Holmes-Lestrade home from the hospital, was turned towards him.

Greg and Mycroft had Vulpes, Sherlock and John had Bumbly the Bogeyman Blocker Bee for the older Rosie. Both sets of husbands had Mycroft’s team take their respective stuffed animals apart and had a more secure camera setup that was attached to their emergency response installed in its place. All four men slept easier knowing the hidden cameras in the stuffed items watched over their respective offspring. 

“Type, date and placement!” Greg tossed each man a marker and a Post-it note pad, and then all three men went to a different wall. Each child had stuffed animals in their room. However, the distinctive logo on the tag of stuffed animals with nanny cam was the clue they needed.

The three men looked at their Post-its arranged on the table in chronological order minutes later. 

“Anteater, Zebra, Bat, Yak, Cheetah, Walrus, Deer, X-Rey tetra, Elephant, Vulture, Frog, Urchin, Giraffe, and Turtle. Thanks for the x-ray fish one Sherlock - would have been a long time before I figured that one out.” John had let loose an impressive string of curses as it all came together.

“The bastard is going forward and backwards alphabetically.” Greg agreed with John’s expletive sentiments wholeheartedly.

A check through the families purchases showed each family had purchased a custom-built stuffed animal nanny-cam within three months of the murder. 

A custom-built stuffed animal where the purchase was either online or in person, but all from the same retailer.

They had their connection.

Within an hour they had deduced who the next victims could be based on the pattern. There were three potential victims. Teams were secretly put in place and within twelve hours they had their man. A psychopath who did it for no other reason than to see how far in the alphabet he could get before, or if, the police figured it out. 

“I’d would have guessed the horse, or hippopotamus, personally.” Mycroft commented back at Baker Street after the press conference announcing the killer had been caught. He had the sleeping Marcus in his arms.

“So, would I truth be told.” Greg agreed.

“No one ever suspects the cute little hedgehog, right Watson?” Sherlock looked to his husband as he played with Rosie on the floor.

“That’s its secret weapon I guess.” John smirked. “Tea anyone?”


End file.
